


Dialogues

by opti



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: Drabble Collection, F/M, Ficlet Collection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-12
Updated: 2015-05-16
Packaged: 2018-03-30 06:29:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 7,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3926347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/opti/pseuds/opti
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for Tumblr as a part of a Dialogue Prompt Meme.</p><p>Varies in content, and each chapter is labeled for ratings and potential warnings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. "Do you... well, I mean... I could give you a massage?" (Rated G)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 5.12.2015 - I'm still finishing up the prompts I have left on tumblr, so this will be updated with every new one I post.

Papers go flying, a stack of them and the folder on top smacking into the door of April’s home office. The sheaf explodes into a cloud, papers drifting back onto the ground as she stomps around in aggravation.

“Babe?” Andy comes running in, nearly slipping on a piece of paper he steps on but only slides a little. “What’s wrong? I heard screaming and yelling? Is the baby coming?”

“Andy, I’m four weeks pregnant,” she scoffs, annoyed more at the world than him.

“So… you’re not going into labor?” he asks, almost disappointed, and she just shakes her head.

“No! This stupid case is making me have to stupid concentrate and the stupid people who are technically my stupid bosses are so  _freaking stupid_ -”

“Woah, woah, woah,” he walks forward like some trying to approach a wounded lioness for the first time. “Calm down. I’m sure it’s not that bad…”

“Andy, I have a meeting tomorrow about a promotion and I haven’t done anything to prepare because I’ve got three clients to worry about and they’re making me stressed and I don’t need to be stressed!” April lets loose, expelling every single thought that comes to mind. Honestly, she was kind of hoping Andy would come in because he always just stood there and absorbed all of this, letting her go on a rampage until it was clear she needed to be stopped. “I’m not supposed to be stressed because it’s bad for the baby, but also we’re having a _kid_ and I still need to worry about these grown up kids who don’t have any direction and-”

Covering the distance between them, Andy puts his hands on her shoulders and stares down at April. It’s a heavy, long look that tells her to quiet but in even fewer words, silent and demanding her to calm down. It works, at least a little, and she takes a deep breath locking eyes with him.

“Listen, cookie, I think you need to relax,” he whispers in  _that_ voice, the one that always accompanies that specific pet name and the soft undertones it carries.

“How?” she responds, still looking up at him and absolutely hooked on how easily he managed to quiet her.

Minutes later, April’s sitting and his giant hands are working neat, surprisingly dextrous patterns into her shoulders. Just enough pressure that she can feel the flesh of his palms dig in, and work, but not the full strength he has that would bruise her all over. Kneading the flesh of her shoulders is nice, but when he moves her to the bed and she’s lying flat on her stomach it gets way, way better.

Oh and the massage is pretty good, she guesses.


	2. "It's not what it looks like..." (Rated G)

April stares, mouth agape at him, trying to find the words. Dirty brownish smears discolor her arms, looking like red covering her arms from hand to elbow, caked deeply in her skin.

“I swear, babe,” she says quickly, because his eyes only get wider and she doesn’t need this right now. “It’s not what it looks like.”

He takes another look at her arms and quickly turns around, sprinting for the living room. April runs after him, trying to catch up and he almost screams and honestly if she wasn’t trying to laugh that would hurt a whole hell of a lot to hear. 

“You’re covered in blood!” he shouts over the couch, dodging her attempts at catching him. 

“No I’m not.”

“Then why… oh God, where’s Champion?” he looks around wildly.

Champion lifts his head, sleeping on his bed in the middle of the living room, and then promptly lies back down to fall asleep. His parents are weird.

“Did you seriously just think I killed our dog?” she screams with all the laughter dying out for a moment, trying to get him to listen. “Dude, listen-”

“This is a nightmare. I always have this nightmare. Babe, please don’t kill me,” he says with a whine in his voice and ducks low, using the couch as cover. Trying to take advantage of that, she quickly hops over the back of the sofa and stares at him.

The sound he makes is both hilarious and really frightening.

When April explains that she found some cool, red clay in the backyard she’d never seen in Pawnee, he’s so relieved and she’s actually sort of hurt he thought she’d  _kill him._ Then again, that’s also incredibly flattering so she decides that, in the end, they’ll just go dig up their yard instead.

“Did you really think I killed someone?” April asks quietly after their bath. Getting rid of all that clay was more difficult than she expected, so they had to have a long bath and April’s definitely okay with that. 

“Yeah,” he looks down at the towel in his hands like he’s ashamed of it.

“I love you so much,” she says with a faint lilt in her voice, because he’s honestly about to make her cry.


	3. “Hey, I’m with you okay? Always.” (Rated T; angst/dark)

“Andy?!”

She sits up in bed, looking around for him. The spot next to her in bed is empty, and she can’t even tell if it’s indented by his weight like usual because of the darkness that she slowly acclimates to and the sudden grip of that black claw in her chest. Her voice comes out distant and frail, searching, and she can’t tell if the four seconds that follow are going to be her life forever. They feel like that eternity, or what may as well be, until there’s movement around the house. Quick, clumsy feet barge into the room.

“What’s up?” he has a towel wrapped around his waist, hair wet and shooting in crazy directions. 

She can’t say a word, her throat suddenly full of  _something_ and she chokes.

“Babe, are you okay?” he’s on the bed in a flash and when she  _knows_ he’s right there she takes no time to throw her arms around him.

Andy cautiously returns the embrace, and the little talons wrapped around her lungs weaken and let her breath. Digging her head into the curve above his collarbone, April inhales him deep into her strengthening chest. It’s warm, and comfort, and home; and he’s all of that with just a breath, trying to stave off whatever caught in her throat. Something must have clicked in him, because Andy’s hands are softer on her back, his arms tighter around her, and he kisses the top of her head still in his shoulder.

“Y’okay?” he whispers, April fully wrapped around his body when she moves her legs into his lap. 

She doesn’t want to pull away from his skin. That’s real. It’s flesh and bone, all Andy’s, and it’s real when she latches her nails into his back just to hold on, so April can’t think of anything better to do than stay with him. Without realizing it, she left two kisses on his collarbone like she’s never been happier to feel anything in her whole life.

Nightmares.

They happen, April always  _knew_ that but you don’t really know something - or understand it - until you’ve truly known it yourself. Ones where she sees him, but can’t really  _see_ him through a fogged windshield or misty morning, and can’t touch him, hear him, love him.

So when she woke up without him near, a body to instantly be against and take in as his, April panicked. 

“No,” she mumbles, tightening her already viselike grip on his back. “Don’t leave me.”

“April, why would I leave you?” he asks like it’s not the exact thing she needed to hear. Not his words, but the ease with which he says them despite their weight.

“Just… don’t,” she turns her head and scoots forward, resting her cheek in the arch of his shoulder. “Please.”

“Hey,” he puts a finger against her chin and April follows it to look into his eyes, wide and worried. “I’m with you, okay?”

April gulps, searching his face for a lie. If it’s there, he’s hiding it well. Instead there’s just  _Andy_ there, truthful and honest and a little childlike but so well meaning that she can’t help herself but fall into it. There’s perhaps a thousand moments hidden in their gaze, something that she doesn’t understand how two people can share and especially doesn’t realize until she’s lost in it that she gets to have; and yet, it’s not enough because April knows this is just an ounce of his love, and what he means. He means it, and she can’t say it quite right so she just gives him a tiny smile in return.

“Always,” and he punctuates it by lifting his thumb to her cheek, moving up to the wetness she didn’t notice building there.


	4. “Hey have you seen the… oh.” (Rated G)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MOTHER'S DAY DRABBLE! WHOO! (It was requested on Mother's day so whatever)

April moves all about the house, attempting to find the stupid cake Andy and the kids baked for Leslie. Knope might not have actually been her mother, but she made a damn fine surrogate for the better part of her adult life. So, it’s only respectful to bring her a cake and try not to have  _too_ much fun watching Andy wrestle three triplets and his own kids all at the same time. 

“Andy!” she shouts, but there’s no answer.

Strangely enough, she can’t remember seeing any of them in the last hour even after she spent most of the day in her home office attempting to get some work done. There are sentences April Ludgate never expected to think, but there’s that one and it doesn’t bother her at all. A seven and five year old should be pretty obvious, and loud as all hell, not to mention the giant eight year old that was her husband around their kids. Honestly, he broke more things in their house than the kids did. That didn’t even account for the others, Sam likely still asleep in her room and the twins definitely not about because Andy hasn’t tripped over a suspended bar in a threshold or stepped on a Lego.

“Babe?” she calls out again, still nothing.

A little worried, she starts for the bedroom but something catches her eye. Little cutout shapes of paper, colored and highlighted, point in arrows with little messages on them. Things like  _world’s best mom_ and  _Babe, I love you_  are on each of them, the occasional comment about how hard she works - though honestly it’s an even split, as Andy handles them at home all the way until she’s back from work - and that they all love her. Robbie’s totally messy script has crazily misspelled things and a drawing, that Sam clearly did, of a giant raptor labelled “Mommy” that’s about to make her cry because it has something large and bleeding in its talons.

Following the little arrows with their messages, she’s lead to the former nursery-turned-shared-bedroom with a closed door. On the door is a large, cutout star and a paper gravestone. 

 _Mommy!_ adorns the star.

 _Best wife and mom ever,_ the marker.

“Hey babe, have you seen the-”

Opening the door, she rolls her lips and bites down to try and hold back the smile at the sight. Andy and Jack are busy putting up red streamers, Roberta moving two little gift bags up to the small table a large cake sat on, the twins playing with a pile of boxes that clearly housed whatever was in those bags, and when she opened the door they all turned to look at her.

“Oh, crap, hey honey,” Andy put down his decoration and walked over to her, kissing her on the cheek. “We wanted to do something before we go to Leslie’s right. Right, guys?”

“Uh huh,” Robbie plays with the handles of one gift bag, running over to her mother and holding it up to her like it’s an offering.

“Dude-”

“Hey, no,” Andy interrupts.

“I told you not to do anything-”

“Which means we’re going to do something,” Andy nods, putting his arm around her back. “C’mon, you haven’t even opened your presents.” 

April takes one look at the room, Roberta looking up expectantly and clutching her legs. Threading her fingers through the girl’s hair. Jack finishes his work, looking pleased with himself when he grabs the other bag. A little form emerges from somewhere, latching onto the back of her legs and it’s definitely little Sammy. She’s groaning into her mother, tired, and the twins stay transfixed on the growing mess of Ludgate-Dwyers embracing. 

For a second, a really, really long second that might have actually been a minute or two, she kind of wanted to cry. 

“I love you guys,” she whispers, giving Andy a kiss on the cheek before crouching down to give every one of them a hug and a kiss of their own. “I’m so lucky to have an awesome family like you.”

“We’re lucky to have an awesome mom,” Jack mumbles, not looking up at her.

“Awesome wife,” Andy adds, returning her kiss and going across the room to gather up the twins. They never struggle around him, though they do love to play with the buttons on his shirt. “Who is seriously the greatest, coolest mom on the planet. Right guys?”

With a resounding, huge noise, they all voice their agreement. April’s really not prepared to handle any of this, so she tries to focus on opening the gift bag and not how insane this all feels. Not that she expected anything less, since Andy’s Mother’s Day celebrations were always so  _insane_ and intricate and always involved defacing some part of their house.

“You don’t have to get me presents, bug,” April looks down at Roberta, smiling and then scans across all of them. Sam tightens her hold and April looks over her shoulder at the yawning girl. “I already have such an amazing gift right here.”

She means it.


	5. “If you die, I’m gonna kill you.” (Rated M; dark/AU)

The first gunshot tells them everything. They’ve come.

Rifle fire declares a line drawn between  _them_ and the  _others_. They have what others want - the cabin, the food, the  _people_ \- and each boisterous ringing, sometimes accompanied by a short cry in the distance, says that the others want what they have. There are no whites of eyes to signal their appearance, only rustling and gunfire. 

April hates it. She hates what this is, but they’ve made everything out of nothing so far, and if she has to defend what they’ve got she will. They cultivated  _something_ like what they all had before, and now it can all evaporate for nothing.

“Babe?”

She lets it loose, trying to find him. 

Throughout the cabin and the complex of chain-link fences, each garden and barricaded corner littered with the dead and dying, she repeats that pet name, trying to find him. 

She moves quickly despite her obvious weight holding her down, used to it by now. Even more, she aims blindly through the links and fires. Two pulls of the trigger empty out into the air, silent save for her handgun and the sad few firing around her. The few she knows will become two, then one, and then none. 

The others let more automatic fire pour over the complex, and somewhere a whine catches her attention. In a sea of shell casings and muzzle flash, almost deafened by the blitz, there’s a voice.  _His_ voice.

Forgetting, April runs. 

She runs faster than she’s ever moved in her entire life, every muscle springing to life at the sound. Fear jolts her system with adrenaline, making her forget to return fire. All that matters is hearing that scream of agony again.

Then she sees him, and the pain in his eyes without even seeing her and all that  _blood_  makes her want to throw up.

“Andy?” she says weakly, trying not to think about how silent everything is all of a sudden.

He looks over, and his face dies before he does. His eyes flicker down to her stomach and Andy starts openly crying, making April dash over to him. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she tries to gently move him closer to her but he screams out in pain. 

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry,” she kisses his cheek with an awkward lean. “Babe, babe, babe. Please, c’mon, we can get out of here. C’mon, babe, calm down.”

His breaths are starting to falter, rattling and hitched. 

“H-Hey,” he says with a smile, red dribble falling down the corner of his mouth and his face noticeably whiter. “I… um, I guess I got shot.”

She doesn’t have the will to look down at his stomach. It’s cut to ribbons from each shot, many of them lacerating everything in their path and April has to stare into his eyes.

“Dude, c’mon,” she whines, feeling the tears overwhelm her. “You know I can’t…  _we_ can’t handle this without you.”

“Babe… I put a  _babe_ in you, babe,” he chuckles and then wheezes, his breaths contracting in a sharp twist and April chokes back a cry. 

“If you die,” she sobs, the word making her entire world fall apart for a second. “I’m gonna kill you.”

Andy smiles and she leans forward, kissing him despite the blood because she knows this is it.  _They_ have what _others_ want, and what April has right now is what they always wanted. Raids stopped for a while, until the news of her pregnancy must have slipped to someone in the complex ready to snap.

“I know,” he mumbles against her lips when she moves away, and his voice begins to slip.

It slips, and April tries her damnedest to grab his hand before he plummets. 

He falls. 

There’s a second, a black moment, where she’s alone. His eyes are open and a smile is on his face, but it’s all simply there. Breathing stops, but blood continues where it ended. Her hands shake uncontrollably around his neck, nearly breaking the bones with each rattle. It all happens in one second, and then it ends. Another gunshot pounds loud into her ears and everything stops.


	6. “Please, don’t leave.” (Rated G)

April realizes, but never wants it, that at some point he’s going to leave.

It always works that way. The first few days are something special, and new, and different. Without some strange, self-imposed barrier between them, it’s like a whole new world’s opened up and all they can bother themselves with is each other. April’s had that before - she’s felt it - and so it’s no more unusual to her, at least at first, to think that he’ll be the same. Then again, weeks later she usually tired of that same person that felt like bright eyes and new beginnings, but not Andy.  _This_ worries her more than anything. Preparing herself already, lying awake in bed with these thoughts firing off every other second, she tries to distance herself from him but the thought is so hard she’s worried what it’s going to be like when he  _does_ leave.

April realizes, and doesn’t care, that at some point she’s fallen too deep to let him.

“Babe,” he whispers into her neck, his whole body around her in a gigantic, comforting cloak. “You’re super cold. C’mere.” 

For some reason, that stings. “But now you’re here,” she mumbles, saying it instead of the forefront of her thoughts buzzing with reasons to be mad at him for calling her  _cold_. He just doesn’t know the depth of her mind, or her heart, and it  _scares_ her; terrifying, but not horrible.

 _What would it be like to tell him,_ she wonders.  _To let him in?_

He stays against her, kissing the back of her neck and before long she turns in his arms and presses against him. Easily letting her brain wash over, letting it worry elsewhere with her body rather than these thoughts, she’s left stuck to his chest and so tired she can’t bother to think anymore about what it’ll be like to share this with him. Would she ever?

In the morning, Andy sits up and the removal of the heat awakens her immediately. Her eyes flash open, looking up at him and pushing him back down by his chest.

“Don’t you want breakfast?” he murmurs, instinctively pulling her against his body.

“Want you,” she says in her still-sleepy daze. 

“Awesome,” he says under his breath, chuckling, and she smiles on his chest. “Do you-”

“Please,” she slides a leg between his, the other focused on running a foot along one of his calves. 

“What? I said I’d-”

“Don’t leave,” she nuzzles his side and buries her head further into him so that the next question is muffled by his body. “Please?”

Everything stills after that. Expecting a laugh, or a groan, and the tightness in his arms to increase until he’s shifting away from her, April’s heart hammers against her chest in anticipation. Instead of any of that, he relaxes. His arm loosens around her, still holding but not like he’s trying to move, and he sighs. A soft exhalation that sounds more like comfort and home than anything April’s heard in years, actual  _years_.

So it’s not even an extra twenty minutes, or an hour, that they stay in bed. Half the day, and they spend it in bed doing nothing more than just that: being there. It doesn’t feel like wasting, because when April really wakes up they talk. They talk, and she says words that burn her throat and make her want to run away to hide from them, but in the end they’re still in bed. Still them, and yet even closer.

April realizes, and needs it, that at some point he promises never to leave her.


	7. “You fainted…straight into my arms. You know, if you wanted my attention you didn’t have to go to such extremes.” (Rated G; what-if)

It was supposed to be some sort of dumb work gathering, or really an HR demanded workmate socialization - something that just made April grimace. The part she  _didn’t_ know was that alcohol would be served. She guessed Tom had something to do with that, considering Leslie’s previous… forays into inebriation. And there was lots, and in a bar that she technically couldn’t drink in but sneaking beers isn’t that hard when she had Andy to hide her. Or to literally go over and just take one for her.

Somehow no one noticed, or likely no one cared. Leslie was too busy trying to rally the already partially drunk crew into some sort of trivia game. 

Instead, April busied herself playing darts on the elevated little loft with Andy and trying to drink less and less because Andy gets warmer and closer to her than usual. Mostly that just means standing close behind her and shoving her playfully, not very hard at all, when her terrible aim showed on the dartboard.

“Ludgate, you are in for the butt kicking of a lifetime,” he started and, before she could wonder where they came from, produced a pair of sunglasses, donning them in the dark bar. “You’ve never dealt with Burt Macklin before.”

“Um…”

This was definitely  _different_. Not the bad kind either, just the gruff voice in contrast to his usually gleeful candor - and the way his stance somehow got more, if it made any sense, forceful - plus the dumb grin that falls on his face… April gets reminded daily why she’s got something for Andy (it’s not a crush, she isn’t fifteen, but also it’s a pretty damn hard crush) but this just puts things in a whole new light that she has to memorize.

He steps up to his usual spot, cocks his wrist back. April half expects to get hit or to watch someone get pelted with darts. Instead he just chuckles.

“You don’t even know what you’re in for.”

“They’re darts,” she deadpanned, trying to hide her smirk. 

“So you already admit you’ve lost?” he laughs and shakes his head. “I expected more of a fight Miss… Hackman.”

April just stared into his eyes, or at least the shades, and scoffed. Okay, so she might have been a little more than willing to go along with this weird roleplaying, and honestly  _really_ into it, but she wasn’t nearly drunk enough. Going to grab herself another beer, she avoided the eyes of everyone - clearly oh so enraptured in Leslie’s makeshift employee trivia game (April was glad her category had one square, which just said her age on it) - and April made her way back to the bar but was too busy staring at Andy repeatedly failing his throws so bad that the darts oftentimes thudded against the wall and fell to the floor. On one of his return trips from the wall, April kept her gaze and didn’t realize she was walking into the step leading up and promptly tumbled forward onto the floor. 

Fully expecting to faceplant and enjoy all the fun that was, she squeezed her eyes tight and put her hands out. Instead of coming into contact with wooden floors, a  _very_ fast shuffling interrupted her and two surprisingly strong  _somethings_ stopped her fully in her tracks.

Looking up, she couldn’t help that her cheeks reddened immensely at Andy’s slightly worried face. At least, his mouth was open as if ready to ask something. A stray thought hit her - what it’d be like to kiss that mouth - and she returned his smile.

“Thanks,” she coughed, still at a strange angle with her armpits in the underside of his elbows. “Uh-”

“You fell right into my arms,” and his voice was strange and silky, something that made April partially melt into them. Except she doesn’t melt into anyone’s arms, especially not Andy’s. Okay, maybe Andy’s. “If you wanted to catch my attention you didn’t have to-”

“I didn’t mean to-”

“Go to such extremes,” and he gave her a faint look, something that was asking permission and also a little nervous if anything Andy did could be described as nervous. “Or, um. I mean, Macklin didn’t. Expect, that is-”

Then she realized there’s a lot of alcohol in both their systems, and they might not even remember this part of the night. So, really, what harm was their in kissing him?

May as well give it a try, is what she thought when he took the plunge first and her face reached new heights of burning - her chest tingling and running all over with little, hot feet along her lungs at every breath - and she was kissing Andy. 

She was kissing Andy and,  _fuck_ , it was awesome.


	8. "You did what?" (Rated G; family fluff)

“Okay, so babe… you’re taking-”

“The twins to daycare,” she repeats once again, Andy running through the daily checklist for the  _fourth_ time. “And  _you_  are going to be here when Robbie and Jack get home.”

“Sam gets dropped off before they go to the bus stop!” he shouts out like he’s won a trivia game show’s prize. “Then I pick her up once the kids are home. Right?”

“Yeah. Sorry I can’t take her tomorrow, you should be fine though,” April shrugs, but Andy starts fidgeting. “What?”

“What? Oh, nothing. Just, um, there’s a change in our plan.”

April stands there, staring at him.

“It’s just that, y’know, uh… you said the kids needed to do more extra-circular activities and I was thinking,  _maybe_ -”

“Andy,” she warns him.

“Look, you said it!”

“Babe, what’d you do?” she asks him, circling around the kitchen counter and staring him down. “I said extracurricular, and you know what I said you  _can’t_ -”

“Okay, Jack signed up for football and he’s going to try out tomorrow after school and I signed his little paper because I knew he wanted to do it so bad-”

“You did…” April trails off, breathing heavily. “What did you sign my son up for?”

“Football!” he says with a smile before dropping it, realizing this wasn’t the time for that. “Look, he’s not gonna get hurt-”

“It was different when he was little; it was just cute. Now he’s still little and everyone’s so much bigger than him. He could get hurt! And if he does, your ass is mine Dwyer,” she tells him, sticking a finger in his chest. “Dude, why didn’t you talk to me about it?”

“Because we already did and you said he wasn’t allowed to,” Andy fidgets on his stool and looks down. “But he  _really_ wants to, babe. Like, he was begging me. You know how bad I am with that! Besides, he’s fifteen. He gets to decide what he does after school.”

She smiles a little more warmly this time, much happier with his reasoning than the action. “Can you promise me he won’t get hurt?” she asks, moving forward so that she sits in his lap. Awkwardly on a stool, but still.

“I mean-”

“Andy, promise me he won’t get hurt,” she interrupts without a shake in her voice.

“Oh, okay! I, um, promise Jack won’t get hurt playing football. That’s definitely not a thing that happens,” Andy nods behind her back. “Especially wide receivers. Definitely not them; they never get hurt!”

“Really?”

“Sure,” Andy responds.

“I’m just glad Robbie didn’t try out,” April sighs.

“She’d probably kill a kid if she tried out for football,” Andy laughs, making her shake with a chuckle. “She could run over half the kids her age without noticing it. You remember her and softball, right?”

“Oh god, I’ve never seen so much blood come out of someone’s nose before,” April smiles wide as she remembers the image of Roberta - gentle giant Roberta, even at twelve - tossing a ball and colliding directly with another girl’s nose. “I was so proud of her.”

“Yeah, but she was super not happy about it. Spent like… two weeks apologizing to that girl,” Andy reminisces. “Speaking of, she’s probably gonna go hang out with Sarah all weekend.”

“Hang out,” April nods. “Right.”


	9. “You need to wake up because I can’t do this without you.” (Rated G)

He picks up flowers beforehand. They’re plain. He isn’t sure what they are really. They’re simple and not especially colorful, but each petal has its own, ingenious path out from the center that makes the whole of the flower look intriguing, strange, and beautiful.

He sets the flowers in a vase, replacing old ones. Someone comes in to change the water in the glass every once and a while, but they still wither. 

He sits in the same, uncomfortable chair every day. Sometimes he wants to cry; most of the time he lets it happen. Then he has to leave, told to go because it’s getting so late that visiting hours ended long before but the prior shift took so much pity on him they let him stay.

The next day he goes and buys flowers. They’re plain, and he isn’t sure what they’re called. Each of them is unique yet simple.


	10. "I'm pregnant" (Rated G; large LD family fluff)

It was  _that_ time again. Every few years, ever since Jack, Leslie steeled herself and told Ben to drink a few glasses of water to calm down beforehand. It never worked anyways, just like April and Andy’s attempts at hiding their “secret” as if coming over basically unannounced ever had any kind of results other than this one.

They sit on the couch in the same way, April in his lap, Andy giddy and April rolling her lips back in a well practiced attempt at hiding her smile. 

“So, we’ve got something to tell you-”

“Oh God,” Ben crumples already. 

“Honey, no-”

“Look, we promise this will be the last one,” Andy breaks in cheerily but not without a hint of seriousness. “I mean, we talked about more but…”

“You say that every time,” Leslie says with a smile, because they do. It’s kind of surprising, but not really when she thinks about it, that April just needed a little support to find her confidence in parenthood.

“This time we mean it,” April purses her lips and nods. “I don’t think I can do another one.”

“Yeah, and we’ve already got the coolest kids in the world,” Andy notes, kissing her shoulder.

“Oh  _God_ ,” Ben puts his face in his hands. 

“Why is Ben dying?” April asks openly, shifting further back into Andy.

“He’s just worried-”

“It’s so much money, you guys. Did you even think… no, of course you didn’t. Your kids might want to go to college some day, guys!” he explodes, lifting his head up and his eyes bulging out like he’s been thinking all of this for way too long and might die if he keeps it inside any longer. “I’m not even sure how you feed your kids _now_. How are you going to handle  _four_ kids!? I mean, it’s already crazy that Andy can juggle three, and how you haven’t gotten them all killed-”

“I’m not a big fan of this whole, insult my parenting skills thing,” April bites back but Ben might be frothing if someone doesn’t stop him. “Besides, we can handle another kid.”

“What’s really cool, though,” Andy buts in, turning his head to stare at April, who returns it with a wide grin. “Is that it’s not just one kid.”

“No…” Leslie trails off, glancing to the side at Ben. “Guys-”

“We’re having twins!” April and Andy shout simultaneously, throwing their hands in the air like a high school cheer squad. 

Leslie turns her eyes to look Ben, whose face turns a strange color of purple.

“Babe, are you okay?” Leslie puts a hand on his shoulder.

“Why aren’t you guys excited-”

“Tw-Twins… five kids.  _Five_ kids?” Ben inquires, looking up at the two of them and then at Leslie before dropping his head in his hands once more. A small sob escapes him, April and Andy giving each other a look before quickly fleeing the scene.


	11. “Teach me how to play?” (Rated T)

“No, you gotta put more pressure… here,” Andy scoots over, his guitar in April’s lap. Next to her, his arm is suddenly large against her back and his hand is guiding her fingers on the frets. “Press down. Hard.”

He says it calmly, coolly. Casual, like his hands aren’t on hers and his fingers aren’t shifting hers on the frets until they must be making a chord shape she doesn’t know anything about. April guesses it looks kind of like the one he always strums absentmindedly while they talk, but it hurts to press any harder.

“This sucks, dude,” she sighs. 

“You’ll get used to it,” he shrugs and takes his hand off of hers. It’s suddenly _really_ cold in City Hall, because he pulls farther away from her.

It all started with April watching him play a few chords while he talked to her. She wasn’t dumb, and knew that he wasn’t playing anything especially complex, but it was still mesmerizing how…  _intent_ his hands and fingers were, and how he still looked in her eyes and talked to her. April found she liked  _that_ combination very, very much. All it took was asking to teach her how to play, and now she’s kind-of-not-really in his lap.

April strums the chord correctly - well, she still isn’t pressing hard enough and a dull  _plunk_ comes from a few of the strings - and winces. The vibrations sting too. Then, noticing him farther away, she purposefully shifts her fingers into something wrong. Another strum, and it’s a totally vile sounding mess.

“Crap,” she says knowingly. Andy looks over. “I think screwed it up again. You gotta show me again.”

“Oh, sure.”

She grins smugly when he’s even closer and Andy’s body is warm on hers again. It’s crazy how she didn’t just turn around in his lap and kiss him, but she was too focused on his fingers almost massaging hers. Something about callouses taking a while to build up, but she was focusing on his motions and movements against the pads of her fingers.

Yeah. It was  _something_ about Andy’s oddly dextrous, focused fingers and hands that made her eyes widen and the thoughts almost burn her up.

‘Something.’


	12. "Wait a minute. Are you jealous?" (Rated G)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm getting more and more lax with the dialogue wording. This should be an exercise to shape the drabble around the dialogue specifically, but I'm kind of avoiding that "much" work.
> 
> Oh well.

At the shoeshine stand, Andy stares at April like she’s the best person on the planet. What certainly doesn’t help is Andy glancing at her and making April glower across, through Andy, and cut through with that searing look. It makes Ann more than a little uncomfortable, but then he leaves and it’s just the two of them for some reason and  _that’s_ way worse.

“Why are you still standing here?” April asks her in a monotonous quip. 

“I... don’t know,” Ann goes to leave, just as ready to be done with this weird exchange when April sighs heavily. Almost angrily. “Do you want to talk about something?”

She turns around, already regretting it when April spins to stare her down.

“About what,  _Ann_?” April hisses.

“About this whole... you and Andy thing,” she gestures with her hand. “I think it’s-”

“Who cares what you think?” April shakes her head. “So self-centered.”

“Dude,” she chuckles. “You are so obvious.”

“What are  _you_ talking about now?” April seethes, walking past Ann.

Laughing, it’s even more obvious to her. “You’re so jealous,” she remarks.

April stops walking, but doesn’t turn around. Her footsteps are louder and Ann swore she heard a growl. She’ll have to make sure she locks her doors tonight.


	13. “I thought you were dead.” (Rated G)

He expected a whole welcome party to greet him when he had landed from his new flight. Missing one by an hour sucked, but he managed to get another pretty easily. Airports in England seemed way better than the ones back in the States, Andy realized.

Instead of that welcome party, there was nothing. No one. Weirdly enough, there weren’t many people in the airport at all. Then, when he called her phone April didn’t pick up and no one seemed to want to talk. Worried, he drove home and unlocked the front door in a hurry.

“April?” 

Inside, it was dark. Flipping the light switch on, he heard a light, little sob that caught him off guard. A head popped up from the couch, reacting to the sudden and bright lights. He stood in the doorway, partially expecting someone he doesn’t recognize to come walking out of their bedroom and instead it’s only Champion tip-tapping his way over and April standing, staring.

Staring, boring her eyes into him like she’s never seen him before. Crouching to pet Champion, he glanced up and saw April still there. So distant, and never looking away from him. Making his way over, she almost flinched when he neared her. 

“Babe, you okay?” he asked, and then he saw her eyes dark, baggy, and tired; her nose runny and red. “What happened?”

April looked for one more second, like she wasn’t even sure Andy was there and then covered the still minute space between them. She slammed into him, her arms around his waist and her head buried in his chest in no time, and he swore April  _cried_ and it’s all so confusing and strange and he needed April to stop crying before he started and that’ll just be a mess.

“What hap-”

She interrupted him in one motion that felt like too many - her legs hiked up around his waist and Andy instinctively held her there, allowing her body to tightly form against his and April kissed him harder than he’s ever felt. Literally and figuratively. It’s excitement and she tasted like salt and that distinctly, surprisingly fruity, flavor but April also forced him onto his back leg. When she broke away her eyes are bright, both from the wetness still gleaming there and something else.

“What happened, babe?” he asked quietly, putting his hand on her cheek and brushing away the tears still there.

“I thought you were dead,” she chuckled, her face breaking into a wide smile. “We all did.”

“What?” Andy laugheds because it’s ridiculous, but April’s face… he’s never seen this. He’s seen her happy, and he’s seen her so ecstatic and euphoric he didn’t believe she could show that, but this was different. April’s face was shedding every ounce of joy he’s ever seen her give and it made Andy grin at her. “Babe, what are you talking-”

“Plane crash. Your flight crashed… how did you-?”

“Woah…” Andy looked down. “I missed my flight.”

When he said that April squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again. She did it twice more, like she’s trying to make sure he’s really there. When he didn’t move, or disappear, she lunged forward again to kiss him once more.


	14. “Have you lost your damn mind!?” (Rated G)

“So… I might have just laughed when I went to talk with their principal,” Andy tapped his fingertips together, smiling in the hopes that April would return it. She doesn’t. “Because it was funny.”

“Babe, trust me when I say that learning they put eleven open cans of tuna in some bully’s locker over the weekend is hilarious,” she sighed. “It really is. But…”

“But, what? That jerk was being mean to Sam. Lucy and Vicky stood up for their sister,” Andy bit back. “Sure, they shouldn’t have done it on school property-”

“Duh.”

“But… isn’t it cool that our kids are fighting for each other?” Andy asked with a hopeful glint in his eye. 

“You’ve lost your mind,” April shook her head, hooking her arms around his neck. “And I love it.”

“So you agree with me?” Andy said with more than a bit of surprise. Did he finally figure out the right wording? “I mean, I know you think their pranks are cool but you never seem okay with it at school.”

“Like you said, the bully needed to be taught a lesson,” April kissed him and then grinned wide. “Let’s give them the whole speech, though.”

“Respect and everything?”

“Yeah, why not? Then we can tell them when they’re twenty that what they did was awesome,” April shrugged, making Andy laugh and it wasn’t too long before she joined in. 

“We’re the best parents,” Andy said with a short sigh of laughter in his voice. 

“We totally are,” she agreed, nuzzling him before kissing him quickly. They need to go discipline their kids at some point, after all.


	15. “Tell me a secret.” (Rated G; family fluff)

Andy stares at the two of them whispering one thing to the other, then giggling, and glancing up at him. For a bunch of little kids, Jack and Robbie were plenty conspiratorial. 

“Hey daddy,” Roberta speaks up. 

“What’s up bug?” he sits on his stomach, putting his head on his fists and smiling.

“You wanna know a secret?” Jack whispers in wonderment.

“Duh!” Andy returns, turning his head for Robbie to lean over.

She takes a moment, giggling, and then speaks quietly. “I think mommy likes you.”

Joining in on their laughter, Andy adds: “You think so?”

Later at night, when he’s put the kids to bed and April’s relaxing after work in bed with a book that’s turned to the same page she was on for hours the night before, Andy slips next to her under the covers. Sighing, he looks over at her.

“Babe?” he mumbles, April glancing over. “Do you like me?”

She stares for a second then chuckles. “Andy, who did you just put to bed?”

“Our kids?” 

“Mhm,” she nods. “Our kids.”

“So that’s a yes?” 

“Yes it’s a yes, you dork,” she leans over and puts her book on the nightstand, returning to nestle her body against his and sigh in content. “I think I like you a whole lot.”

“Awesome,” Andy mutters before turning to return April’s deep embrace.


	16. “I almost lost you.” (Rated G; large LD family)

“Andy, check down that aisle,” she ordered him, Andy’s wide eyes scanning every inch of the department store with April. He nodded quickly. “Jack. You and Robbie go back to the electronics section. Lucy and dad are going down there.”

“Got it, ma,” Jack nodded and the two of them bolted - Robbie just as fast as him - towards the corner of the store with bright, flashing televisions.

With Victoria in one arm, April scoured everything from frozen foods to the toys section Andy was still trying to look through. Nowhere. They couldn’t find her. Panic started to flare up in her, and worry too. She’d known both of those emotions before, and well, but thinking about her kid -  _her baby_ \- missing in a store, potentially gone and who knows why, was making her want to scream and shake. 

Passing the clothing section, a flash of something hit her. They’d walked past a young boy’s section and a pair of pajama pants had made Sam sit and stare. Something about superheroes and it took an immense effort to take her away.

Nearly sprinting back to that section, it was a failure. No one was there, let alone a little girl. Just as she was about to crumple to the floor, the changing room doors swung open just a few yards away from her. Still in sight, a little figure appeared wearing multicolored fleece and looking around.

“Sam,” April huffed, crossing the distance in almost no time at all. “Sam, baby, are you hurt? Where’d you go?”

“I went to go try those cool pants on,” she shrugged.

“Baby, you can’t do that without telling us,” April let Victoria on the ground to stand for a moment before picking Sam up, her arms  _much_ stronger after so many children, and hugging her tight. “You gotta tell us. I thought I lost you.”

“I’m right here mom. Duh,” Sam said with a laugh, and April kissed her cheek. 

“I know you are. Just… be a little more careful? Tell us next time,” she let Sam down, breathing away some of the red, panicked heat in her lungs. Most of it remained. 

Taking the twin threatening to wander back into her arms, she led Sam back to the others. Andy had the same schpiel to give her, and hugged her so tight April was worried her giggles would shrink but he knew when to stop and when it was just a fun, dad-bear hug. Jack and Robbie returned with sorrow in their eyes until they saw Sam, and then it was another round of hugs. April knew she loved her family and knew that they loved each other, but seeing that was something she’d remember for a while - everyone so thrilled and happy to see Sam. It didn’t happen often. 

She’d neatly tuck away the part where thinking Sam was lost was going to break her entirely, since she saw the wide smile on Jack’s face and her other daughter’s massive grin and huge embrace for her sister.


	17. “I can’t believe you talked me into this.” (Rated G)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 5.16.2015 - all prompts done!

On the first run, April screams and clings onto him. They do another loop and he lets out a holler of excitement, but her heart is thundering in her chest the whole time. All that she can think is that she’s glad she only ate a pretzel before getting on here unlike Andy who wolfed down two sausages.

He yells again, even  _louder_ , and she can only shut her eyes and let the air blast through her hair with another pass. Before she can really comprehend it, they’re upside-down and she might just pass out. 

Thankfully it’s the final portion of the rollercoaster and they come to a stop not long after.

When she steps out, April has shaky legs and Andy’s got the biggest grin on his face.

“Dude, that was awesome!” he shouts.

“Ugh, something like that,” April replies, holding her stomach with one hand and leaning into Andy for support that he gives. “I can’t believe you talked me into that.” 

“What, wasn’t it fun?”

“Not even slightly,” she shakes her head, trying to take deep breaths and avoid vomiting everywhere. “Can we never do that again?”

He looks down at her and when she tilts her head up he’s simply grinning. “Totally! We’ll go do something way cooler. Ooh, like those awesome fake shooting ranges or we can throw baseballs at bottles-”

“No rollercoasters?” she requests, interrupting him before he lists every single other activity at the amusement park.

“No rollercoaster,” he says firmly, making April smile up at him.


End file.
